CABS winter operation in Sardinia

When the central and eastern European thrushes and robins reach their winter quarters in Sardinia in late autumn, the poachers are already waiting there with thousands of wafer-thin horsehair snares and trapping sites equipped with huge nets.
CABS and our partner associations have been organising migratory bird protection camps in the south of the Mediterranean island since 1995. In the past we only carried out one week operations in early winter, between 2012 and 2017 we covered almost the entire season with 8 weeks between November and January. With the significant decline in poaching, we are now again carrying out one to two operations of 10 to 20 days each.
The participants, who usually come from Italy and usually number between 15 and 20, search the fresh paths of the poachers in the extensive strawberry tree forests. These are labyrinth-like in the unclear hills and - if active - equipped with thousands of horsehair snares each, which are positioned in the bushes as well as on the ground. Nets are more often found on the mountain ridges, which the birds fly over flat.

While in the past our main focus was on collecting the traps and nets, since the mid-2000s we have placed greater emphasis on catching the poachers red-handed. This is either done by coordinating joint operations with police or by CABS members setting up covert cameras. In contrast to the regulations in Germany, the videos made with such cameras can be disclosed in court - many trappers are caught and convicted in this way every year. Where poachers have been convicted, the traps are carefully dismantled.
In addition, we conduct undercover investigations in butchers' shops and restaurants, trying to shut down both the poachers' supply and distribution channels.
Poaching with horsehair snares has largely come to a standstill as a result of our bird protection camps in Sardinia. Where we once routinely found up to 22,000 snares, there are now often less than 500 (see also our Statistics). Nets, on the other hand, remain a major problem on the Mediterranean island.
Our cooperation partner, the Pro Biodiversity Foundation (SPA), supports us every year in financing the CABS bird protection camps on Sardinia.